"That's not writing; that's just typing." –Truman Capote

Well, you survived the first week of AP Language & Composition. Well done, you!

Your first official blog post assignment is this: Tell me about yourself. Do this in an interesting way. By that I mean don’t just ramble on about stuff you like/dislike. Craft a wee little story about some experience that reveals something about you.

But I’m boring.

Nonsense! Even your days lounging languidly on your couch watching reruns of Chopped have some kind of story embedded in them. You will learn in this class that anything can be worth writing about if you write it well enough. Try that idea out on your first blog post.

Include an active link to something, at least one photo, and try to embed a video. Woah. That’s a lot of things. You can do it! Please post by Sunday 8:00 PM if at all humanly possible. We can discuss and settle on a time that works better if this gets in the way of other stuff…but you do have all weekend and, of course, you can post earlier than the deadline.

A note about the blogging component of this class: your blog is a place for you to personalize your writing, to experiment with writing, to air out some ideas, to interact with your classmates (and, I guess, the world) and most important, to develop and strengthen your writing voice. Barring significantly inappropriate writing (in either form or content) just completing the weekly task will earn you your credit for this element. It’s not “graded” the same way an essay would be. But since we play how we practice, I expect you to get in the habit of, like, using capital letters and punctuation and real sentences in your blog posts. Try to give them some shape or personality. Have a point. Write something worth reading. And, because blogs are blogs, make use of the media aspects when appropriate. Some professional bloggers include at least one image per post so that an icon linking to that post can be generated. If it feels like I’m speaking another language, don’t worry, you’ll catch on. This should be fun. Take ownership of your blog. Personalize it. Add gadgets. Make it reflect your aesthetic. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD, DO NOT USE A HIDEOUS ILLEGIBLE FONT. Consider your audience. Consider the purpose. Consider the form. Go nuts.